There is definitely value to be had in Midway’s Ultimate Mortal Kombat for the Nintendo DS. While it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, the tried and true gameplay works very nicely on the handheld and is a great pick up and play game for those times when you’re waiting for the bus to pick you up or have 15 to 30 minutes to kill.

The addition of online play is certainly UMK's biggest selling point. If you are a huge fan of the series and plan to take the skirmishes online there is no reason to hesitate picking this one up. This is by far the best portable Kombat game to date. However, if you are thinking of snagging it up for a solo affair you may want to re-consider as the frustrating AI and shallow puzzle game will do little to entertain for more than fifteen minutes.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat is definitely a worthy pickup for any fan of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The game plays just like the original did, down to the moves being faithfully recreated. The graphics are well done, the online play was a great addition and the game is just a joy to play. The inclusion of Puzzle Kombat is nice, to be sure, but the majority of the fun with this game is going to come from beating your friends or the computer senseless in a regular fight. If you wonder what really got this craze going in the early to mid 90s, this game will definitely give you some insight into that. While the game brings nothing new to the table, this is definitely one of the more solid portable versions of Mortal Kombat that I've ever played. If you're looking for something new here, pass this one up. But if you're looking to re-live the days of popping quarters into an arcade machine, look no further.

The "ultimate" suggests that there's more to the package than one arcade fighter and one mini-game - you wouldn't be the only one to think that the cart would have been cooler as an anthology of the 2D Mortal Kombat games. After all, Midway packed in all three plus a bunch of other arcade games in a $19.99 PSP collection more than a year ago. Simple as the presentation is, the two titles are well developed. If all you want is a really solid, fun version of Mortal Kombat 3 that can go online, that's what you're going to get. It's good stuff all around.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat is essentially an online-only title. It doesn't have much in the way of single player modes, or in the way of new content. But for fans of Mortal Kombat, and fans of arcade-style fighters, this one is a sure-win. It has all of the ingredients that made the original games such a success, and has the ability to extend these elements so you can take your game further, without losing all your quarters! Ultimate Mortal Kombat is really a fan's delight, and is sure to appeal to those who feel the need for Kombat everywhere!

Ultimate Mortal Kombat won't set the handheld fighting world on fire, but it certainly goes a long way toward atoning for past portable atrocities like Mortal Kombat Advance. If you've never understood the tongue-in-cheek appeal of the series this obviously won't change your mind, but if you're constantly suppressing the urge to pull out someone's spine while on the bus to work, it's a relatively inexpensive and consequence-free route to doing so.

Playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat makes me wish I could travel back in time and show it to the thirteen-year-old me. Once upon a time, my friends and I predicted that one day, there would be a home console that would look and sound even better than the arcade machines… and you wouldn’t have to blow into the game cartridge to make them work. Well, we’re there. We’re in the future. We don’t have to go to the mall or swap our dollar bills for quarters. Ultimate Mortal Kombat is the real deal, and it’s mind-blowing to think that I can not only play it at home, like I used to daydream about, but it fits snugly right in my pocket.

Mortal Kombat is an acquired taste and is looked down upon by most coin-op fighter enthusiasts because of its lack of strategy and its stiffness of control. UMK3 got rid of the stiffness, and the game truly is playable on the DS if you can get by the fact that the D-Pad is so small. If you're looking for a Mortal Kombat game you can play online or on the go, Ultimate Mortal Kombat should well worth a buy because it's such an excellent port and Puzzle Kombat is just an added bonus. But remember, the game is exceedingly cheap, and we're not talking about money.

With both local and full wireless support, you can't go wrong having a portable version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It may not be the most technical or balanced fighter out there, but it's a lot of fun and very accessible. I just don't see Puzzle Kombat as a necessary addition. Overall, a solid offering and a great chance to revisit the 2D days of Mortal Kombat's crazy universe.

Although its frustrating single-player AI and lack of other games keeps it from being a must-have brawl-a-thon, Ultimate Mortal Kombat satisfies with its online options, old-school presentation and acceptable gameplay. Just don't expect a "flawless victory".

If you're a DS-owning Mortal Kombat fan, this is a great offering that's certainly worth owning, but only if you're properly equipped to take your DS online. You probably won't want to play alone for more than 15 minutes, so be sure to take that into account before you buy.

As far as ports go, Ultimate Mortal Kombat is exceptional. Fans of the series will absolutely love having such a solid translation on the go, and the wireless multiplayer is sure to make a few diehards ecstatic. The problems are the same as those from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, though: spotty AI combined with mercilessly cheap boss battles, a sizeable chunk of lame characters, and the unintentional goofiness of the finishers. In terms of the general quirks and problems with the game, all I can say is that I still own a copy of UMK 3 for the Sega Saturn. Hey, I’m a fan.

One of the better fighters from the 16-bit era has been ported well. The game’s achievements and flaws all remain intact. Fighters may have evolved over the past twelve years, but Mortal Kombat’s classic gameplay finally has a place in portable online form.

I suppose it really comes down to how much you dig the original Mortal Kombat trilogy (note that Mortal Kombat Trilogy is actually most complete compilation; why it isn't the version featured in here is another story). If you enjoyed uppercutting your mates into the rooftop back in the nineties, well - some things don't change. But you may have since grown weary of the rather shallow battle mechanics that can't hold a candle to modern 2D fighters nd Puzzle Kombat can only keep you occupied for so long. Newbies may want to give it a chance to see what it was that us older folk were so crazy about all those years ago, but the ridiculously spewing blood and gruesome fatalities have since been superseded by more disturbingly horrific imagery. What you're left with here is a great online-enabled emulation of a so-so fighting game (plus a lame puzzle game) which looks rather anaemic now that violence in video gaming is nothing to rave on about.

Considering how old Ultimate Mortal Kombat is, it really should have been thrown into a retro Midway pack or at least a collection of classic MK games. Paying for UMK3 yet again just doesn't seem worth it unless you're absolutely dying to have it on the go and play it online through a handheld. If you're looking for a fighting game that uses the DS in innovative ways then you need to look elsewhere, but if you simply want the classic game you know and love to play in the palm of your hand then snap this up and battle away!

With both local and full wireless support, you can't go wrong having a portable version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It may not be the most technical or balanced fighter out there, but it's a lot of fun and very accessible. I just don't see Puzzle Kombat as a necessary addition. Overall, a solid offering and a great chance to revisit the 2D days of Mortal Kombat's crazy universe.

The game play is as tight and entertaining as it was back then but the animations of the characters do seem a bit out of place in comparison to smooth 3D animations of the top fighters these days like Tekken, Dead or Alive or Virtua Fighter. Sound clips are also a straight conversion which really does sound terrible because of what we have come to expect from games these days. This game will sit in your DS dependant on the online multiplayer factor. If you plan to play this alone you will have nice cinematics for each character, which is a bonus, at the end of the game and the quick pick-up-and-play mechanics work very well for it. The thing is this – if you are an avid old 2D Mortal Kombat fan who is dying to play this type of game on a handheld or online then this is possibly your only ticket to 2DMK-realm.

There's still pleasure to be drawn from a game that was arguably at the peak of its powers on its original release. Inasmuch as while it had the heart of a serious beat-'em-up, it also had a sense of its own ridiculousness, and its ludicrous OTT violence and its silly babalities and animalities lend a sense of lightweight fun to proceedings. Such an incongruous mixture has a stupid charm, even if the overall package proves less nutritional than some other fighters. There may never be a beat-'em-up of its type again, so it's nice to be entertained by its bull-headed presence on a handheld format once more, at least as long as the online multiplayer sustains an audience.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat? Schyeah, right, and Shao Khan might fly out of your butt. No, truth be told, this is far from the quintessential handheld MK experience. Mortal Kombat Unchained did more for the PSP and it's available at $20 less than this release over at EB Games. However, MK fanatics who don't mind UMK3's limitations and absolutely love Puzzle Kombat shouldn't hesitate to drop a few bucks on it, especially with the game's online functionality. Going at it alone, though, will require a great deal of strength. Get ready to REALLY test your might against this AI.

If you're not looking for a complex fighting game and want something satisfying that you can get stuck right into and become rather good at quickly, Ultimate Mortal Kombat is a great choice, and it has a fun and functional online mode to boot. However, lack of depth and silly expectations from the AI are what drag it down. Still, at least with the commands on the top screen you'll be able to execute fatalities and make the offenders feel your vengeful wrath more easily than before...